The Router Table Saga #1: The setup

I’m finally setting up a shop in the east half of our two-car garage. I’ve got some rudimentary tools and even more rudimentary skills and a whole lot of enthusiasm and a very understanding Wife, so I bought a router to add to the 20+ year old fixed base B+D router I have. (I will have to write a review of the Triton 2 1/4 horse router when I’ve put it through its paces).

Working on our dining room table a chair set that a buddy of mine was making for us I asked him about what was important in a router table. He pretty much concurred with the reading I’d been doing about the key features (Flatness, rigidity, smoothness, large enough work area, fencing etc). I’d priced out commercially available ones, and ones that are of a reasonable size start at about $300 and go up (man that Benchdog cast table…). I took this as an opportunity to build something better that what can be purchased ( a common affliction amongst woodworkers I understand :-) so set about reading a whole lot more on design and use of router tables and then decided to make my own. I’ve worked with AutoCAD a fair bit (did my thesis using AutoLISP and a whip and chair to get the software to do what I needed…but that’s a whole ‘nother story) and knew that software design was the way I wanted to go (can’t draw a straight line with a ruler;-) and had heard about Google’s Sketchup (from a Canadian woodworking magazine). Downloaded it, being a typical guy I didn’t read the instructions and just started playing with it….after going back to the tutorials I got up to speed in no time and sketched out what I thought I wanted. I really like the ability to putter around with different joints, angles etc and see what the project will look like (then I found the rendering bit and was really happy with the process). I created a model and have started creating sawdust. The interesting thing I’m finding is that since I had to ‘build it’ in sketchup I have a much better idea of how I am actually going to accomplish this project.

Its late here and Jenn has suggested that 0500 comes really early so I’d better quit blogging. I’ll get more to the point next time.

-- "Checking for square? What madness is this! The cabinet is square because I will it to be so!" Jeremy Greiner LJ Topic#20953 2011 Feb 2

I’ve found that if I build it, in Sketchup( or whatever), the way I would in real life, it forces me to make mistakes, or see design flaws, before I cut a piece of wood. Plus I can use it, during lunch of course, to get my shop fix while I’m at work ;)

AutoLISP… Thesis?... Man you could write stuff that creates moldings, compound curves, joints, and tons of other stuff all at the click of a button :)

Well I’m back… sometimes I’m glad computers are never as fast as I want them to be as it allows me time to read explore LJ more.

Yeah the software really lets me figure out stuff I would have done out in the shop dulling bits and burning wood in the process. I really like the ability to putter with designs first. I’ve still got to work on the dimensioning.

Thanks for the comments about my process rikkor, I found once I adopted the Sketchup way of doing things whilst using it…it is unlike many of the drawing packages out there, drawing became much easier to work with. Once I stopped doing CAD type stuff with it and used it more as a design/sketch pad it started working for me. The videos and tutorials really helped also.

AutoLISP is a deep dark black recursive hole I never want to explore again. The darkest most troublesome caveing experience I ever had was no where near as scary as doing AutoLISP… Give me C or even .Net stuff any day. Now I’m going to have to spend more hours in the shop to drown the AutoLISP blues ;-)

-- "Checking for square? What madness is this! The cabinet is square because I will it to be so!" Jeremy Greiner LJ Topic#20953 2011 Feb 2